ugvm

the site of uk.games.video.misc

  • Home
  • Podcast
  • Articles
  • Platforms
    • Xbox 360
    • Playstation 3
    • wii u
    • 3ds
    • psp
    • iOS
    • PC
    • Mac
    • Wii
    • xbox
    • SNES
    • Mega Drive
  • Gamercodes
    • Xbox Live
    • Wii U NNIDs
    • Wii
    • PSN
    • 3DS
    • Steam
    • Apple Game Center
    • Battle.net
    • Elite Dangerous
  • Gallery
  • Back Issues
  • Other Groups
  • About Us
    • A brief history of ugv*
    • Posting Traditions
    • Join in
    • ugvm Charter

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 16/06/2023 Written by deKay

What’s this, you say? It’s been over a month since I completed anything? You thought I was dead? Well, no! Turns out that Tears of the Kingdom is Quite Large and so it has taken me 95 hours to complete it. Which, across a month, is about three hours a day. That’s fine, right?

There’s a lot to talk about regarding the game. For example, a number of people complained that it’s just using the same overworld as Breath of the Wild which means loads of asset reuse and less exploring because you already know what’s there. Yes, it’s the same basic map, with all the main locations like villages and stables and mountains and so on in the same places, but the event that provides the trigger for the story – the Upheaval – has seriously disrupted things. There are big old holes all over the map. There are caves everywhere. There are weird rocks which both create and block routes and roads. Things have been built, other things have been destroyed. As a result, it’s familiar but also new.

Also linked to The Event, there are unusual phenomena to investigate which have also altered the map. Rito village is cut off (as much as any 100% populated by birds village can be) because of snow. The Gerudo town is abandoned. The Zora’s waters are polluted. And this is before I get on to the two new maps which have been added: The Upheaval has revealed many islands in the sky, and opened chasms to the weird Depths which sits in the dark below Hyrule. They don’t quite triple the area to explore, but combined with all the new caves, they’re probably not far off.

With all this change, I was a bit disappointed at how little the game actually referenced the events of Breath of the Wild. It takes place a number of years later, but not hundreds of them, so you’d expect there still to be loads of ruined Guardians about the place, and the towers from the first game have completely vanished and have been replaced with new towers that act as giant catapults launching Link into the sky. There’s nothing relating to the Sheikah stuff at all, no Divine Beasts, no remnants of all those shrines you found before, or weapons or anything. The only references I’ve seen are in passing, like the Lab has a few Guardian arms on the roof, and it seems to be repurposed Guardian arms that grab you just before you’re catapulted. Several characters that you meet, who you’d previously met in the original, either struggle to recognise you or have completely forgotten you, despite you saving the entire actual world.

Replacing the Sheikah now are the even more ancient Zonai race of technologically advanced goat/lizard/fish creatures who created the Kingdom of Hyrule originally, with their King, Rauru marrying a proto-Hylian ancestor of Zelda, Sonia. Who they keep pronouncing “sohn-ear” instead of “son-yah”, which irritates. Seems Rauru and his allies many, many years ago sealed Ganondorf away and he’s Back and the reason why the Upheaval happened in the present. So in a way, Tears of the Kingdom is set both long before even the historical events in Breath of the Wild, and after the present-day events of that game. The Zelda timeline was complicated and nonsensical enough before this came along. Oh, and Ganondorf isn’t Ganon. Two entirely separate entities as far as the story goes, and I found Ganon was mentioned just once in my playthrough, and that was on a plaque in the middle of nowhere.

But what about the gameplay, I hear you cry in exasperation. Well, it’s largely as it was before. You have weapons, which degrade (and thanks to the Upheaval tend to be already damaged when you find them now), loads of items you can find and use to make meals, you can climb cliffs and soar across chasms with your paraglider. However, since you no longer have Sheikah powers, like Magnesis and Cryonis, new abilities are granted to you to replace them. Chief amongst these is the ability to build things. Stuff you pick up can be stuck to other stuff, and combined with Zonai devices like fans and rockets you can create cars and boats and planes and missile launchers that chase baddies and all sorts of contraptions. You also have the ability to turn back time for an item – handy for using on those rocks that fall out of the sky, as you can hop on, rewind, and get a lift upwards – and also a fuse power where you can stick almost any item to your weapons and shields for more damage, elemental effects, or to create new sorts of weapon. The other main new ability is “ascend”, which lets you “swim” directly upwards through solid objects.

Like before, your abilities are needed to not only reach places and progress the story, but also used extensively in the shrines. Most shrines contain puzzles where your skills in combining items, clever ascension, or making use of the game physics are tested and you’re rewarded with a blessing. Four blessings and you can trade it in for another heart or to increase your maximum stamina.

None of this actually tells you if the game is any good, though. Thankfully, it is. Very good. I was a bit worried at the start because once all your existing powers, hearts and stamina from BotW are forcefully extracted from you (not a spoiler, it’s in the first two minutes of the game), you have to complete a few shrines in order to get some of your new powers. This is similar to the first game, of course, but here it wasn’t much fun and felt much too linear. With them out of the way and the whole of the rest of the map(s) then opened up to explore pretty much as you want, it drastically improved. I tried to follow the main story, I really did, but I was sidetracked so often it was impossible, so after the first few missions it was probably 20 hours or more before I finally returned to the primary questline, but even that was short-lived before I was off again. There’s so much to explore, places to compare to what you remember from Breath of the Wild, side quests, shrines to find, and so on.

When I was 45 hours in, I had found what I thought were all the Sages, each of which gave me an additional ability, and though that despite only having about 15 hearts and no Master Sword, I was ready to take on Ganondorf. I was not.

It wasn’t too difficult to reach him, although it did take me TWO HOURS, but there’s a point of no return and after that there are So. Many. Baddies. that you’re exhausted of healing meals before you’ve even laid a sword on him. If you can lay a sword on him, because one hit almost wiped me out before I had a chance. I didn’t survive much longer and had to reload an earlier save to escape. I then set about getting more hearts, discovering I could get the Master Sword after all, upgraded my armour to max, and found that actually, there was more Main Quest to do which I hadn’t realised. Before long, another 45-odd hours had passed and I had 25 hearts and a pocket full of more suited meals, and off I went to try again.

This time, I was much more prepared, powerful and skilled. So I ran away from all the baddies I could on the trek back to Ganondorf, and then because of Spoiler reached him much more quickly and with less battle damage than previously. He was tricky to land a blow on, but he barely scratched me this time! Just as I was about to defeat him I realised – the armour I’d spent hours collecting material to upgrade, wasn’t being worn. I was still wearing the un-upgraded snow gear I’d been using just prior to going in. What a waste of time that was!

And then I beat him, it was done, and the end played out. What an incredible game. But I’m not done yet – I’ve already been back in to find more shrines! I was up to 105 found but it appears there are 152 of them to complete, so that’s my next task.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, switch, zelda

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 05/03/2023 Written by deKay

Even though I owned this for the duration of my time with a 3DS as my primary form of handheld video gaming entertainment (it was free because I was a 3DS Ambassador), I never actually played it on there. I also have the original, for the GBA, which I did complete at the time (EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO!?) and very much enjoyed it, so no idea why I never played it again. Until now!

It’s another one of the GBA games that has appeared on the recently-released Nintendo Online Game Boy Advance service on the Switch, and so I thought I’d go through it. Mainly to see why so many people complain about it being rubbish. Spoiler: I couldn’t see why so many people complain about it being rubbish.

OK, so perhaps it’s very easy. Not one of the bosses was difficult, none of the dungeons had very tricky puzzles, I never died, and it wasn’t hard to figure out what you’re supposed to be doing at any point. But is that a bad thing? Is it just because I’ve played a lot of Zelda games in my time (and probably subconsciously remember some of it since last time I played Minish Cap)? Does it stop it being happy and fun? No, no it does not.

I forgot to check how long it took to complete, but I’m going to guess at about 15 hours or so. It didn’t feel that long, as I constantly felt like I was making progress and so zoomed through it. It looks incredible too, even blown up to however many inches my laughably oversized TV is compared to the tiny Game Boy Advance SP (or possibly even Micro) I played it on originally.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, game boy advance, retro, switch, zelda

Zelda (Game & Watch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 31/07/2021 Written by deKay

I was lucky enough to be given (an original!) one of these, as well a Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong II, this weekend. It’s the best Game & Watch game and although I have a keyring mini replica I haven’t played the G&W classic since it was a Hot Product in the school playground.

And it still stands up really well today. Although it was much, much easier than I recall because I managed to complete it on my first go. Actually completing G&W games is unusual because most are high score chaser games, but Zelda has an endpoint – get all the bits of triforce by killing all the dragons – and that’s what I did. It was Excellent.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Diary, game & watch, retro, zelda

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Switch): COMPLETED!

Posted on 29/09/2019 Written by deKay

It can’t be that long ago when I last played the original (well, DX) version of Link’s Awakening, I thought to myself. After all, I remember most of what I’m supposed to be doing. It turns out it was more than eight years ago. It also turns out I’d not remembered quite as much as I’d thought.

This Switch version is a shot-for-shot remake of Link’s Awakening DX. All the same enemies, all the same weapons, all the same characters, and the exact same map. What has changed only modifies things. Most obviously, there are the new tilt-shift rendered toy-like graphics, with everyone looking like little plastic dolls. It works really well. Then there’s the continually scrolling world, rather than being flip-screen (apart from in dungeons – some rooms still switch) which actually makes the game map appear somewhat smaller than I remember.

Of course sound in massively improved too, but the other big change is the controls. On the Game Boy, you only had two buttons – A and B – to use weapons. You kept having to go into the menu and swap them out. This was pretty tedious, especially if you needed three weapons at once, and out of sheer laziness meant that the shield rarely got used. In the Switch version, some weapons are permanently tied to buttons, which means you can always use your sword, shield and pegasus boots without swapping them in, and you still have two action buttons for other things. I generally found keeping Roc’s feather on Y and then just changing the use of X when needed worked best for me. Having a shield at all times makes the game one hell of a lot easier.

In fact, I found the whole game very, very easy, only dying twice. Of course, some is down to the shield and easier controls, but no doubt much is because I remembered a lot of where I needed to go and what to do. Although I did lose Marin for a while which made me think there was a bug. There wasn’t – I had just lost her.

As much as I really enjoyed the game, and I must stress that it is really good, I can’t help think how good Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons would be using this engine, as they’re even better than Link’s Awakening. I’m hoping they do those before Breath of the Wild 2!

The post The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening (Switch): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: completed, Post, switch, zelda

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (3DS): COMPLETED!

Posted on 04/06/2017 Written by deKay

And that, following its pair – Oracle of Ages – from a few weeks back, means that the two best Zelda games have been completed. Again. Like Ages, I originally completed Oracle of Seasons right near the start of this gaming diary’s life. Back then, I finished Seasons first, but this time reversed them.

It didn’t make a lot of difference. The extra heart carried over from the more puzzley Ages helped a little in the more combatty Seasons, but that’s all. I did make the mistake of not playing Seasons for just over a week, meaning I’d forgotten what I was supposed to be doing. I admit, I resorted to reading a guide but only to remind me. I did’t make that mistake again.

Seasons seemed easier than I recall. Backtracking was more of an issue than my memory suggests, mainly because of the lack of useful warp points (aka the seed trees). Warp points exist of course, but they never seemed to be near where I needed to go. I ended up using the same two or three and then walking the long walk instead. Maybe if I’d figured out the routes across Subrosia it wouldn’t have been such a trek.

After beating Onox, the final boss, I went on to fight Twinrova. You can only do this once you’ve completed both Ages and Seasons, but I’d done that. Finally, the half-developed form of Ganon needed to be defeated. I was sure Twinrova was difficult last time around, but it seems my memory was faulty again and it was Onox I struggled with before.

And that’s that. Definitely still the best Zelda game(s). Fact.

The post The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (3DS): COMPLETED! appeared first on deKay's Gaming Diary.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: 3ds, completed, Post, retro, zelda

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »
  • E-mail
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Latest Podcast Listenbox

Tags

3ds 360 ACNL animal crossing Arcade assassin's creed Batman completed Destiny Diary evercade Game Diary games iOS lego Mac mario Master System Mega Drive minecraft nes PC picross Playstation 3 Playstation 4 Playstation 5 pokemon Post ps+ ps3 PS4 ps5 psn PS Vita retro sonic the hedgehog Steam steam deck streetpass switch Vita Wii wii u Xbox 360 zelda

Contributors

  • Diary – deKay's Lofi Gaming
  • Game Diary – The Temple of Bague
  • gospvg
  • Lufferov’s Gaming Diary
  • Tim's Gaming Diary

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

RSS Feed RSS – Posts

Copyright © 2023 · Outreach Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in